House of steel

The MAN House

View into the kitchen

1955 MAN Steel house

After the Second World War, functional and also comfortable living was also the concept for the M.A.N steel houses.

Background

Many residential areas in Germany and Europe lay in ruins. So a programme to mass produce affordable housing developed in the American occupation zone.

Walter Gropius and the Bauhaus as a role model

In 1948, the plant in Gustavsburg started to manufacture metal accommodation. M.A.N. also seized on ideas of the star architect Walter Gropius and the "Bauhaus" inspired by him, which had already presented concepts for prefabricated housing at the start of the 1920s. The minimum size of the steel houses was eight by eight metres. Inside, chipboard covered the metal skeleton. Glass wool mats in between provided heat insulation. The self-supporting roof trusses spanned the entire width of the house, so that the position of the inner walls could be flexibly determined according to the requirements of the owner. In the opinion of contemporaries, this was the major advantage of the construction.

End of an idea

However, this type of house did not establish itself, partly due to the comparably high costs. In 1953, M.A.N stopped production. However, even today, the invention is astounding: Four of these prefabricated houses are located in Augsburg directly behind the MAN museum and people still live in them.